Matthew 27:52-53 and Appearance of Holy People: Pious Fiction or Fact?

Those two verses say that “many” bodies of holy people who had “fallen asleep” (i.e. died) were raised from their tombs and entered Jerusalem and appeared to many. Is this fact or pious fiction?

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Triumphal Entry: Did Jesus Straddle Two Animals?

The critics have such disrespect and low regard for the Gospels that they believe Matthew actually wrote that Jesus straddled two animals during his triumphal entry. But maybe a Greek noun and a pronoun can clarify the problem for openminded readers,

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Did the Prophets Predict That the Messiah Would Be Called a Nazarene?

Once again, the hostile critics pounce on Matthew’s perfectly legitimate and culturally acceptable use Old Testament themes and words.

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Jairus’s Daughter in Three Gospels: Do the Differences ‘DESTROY’ the Truth of the Story?

There are definitely differences in the three accounts of Jairus’s daughter being raised from the dead, in Matthew, Mark, and Luke. But do these differences blind us to the central truth of the story?

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Jesus Calls Certain Disciples in Four Gospels. Do the Accounts Contradict?

Are the four Gospel writers all that clumsy, or do they employ the story teller’s art to narrate the story of these disciples from the writers’ own point of view?

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Why Did Luke Switch the Sequence in the Temptation Passages?

Scripture: Matthew 4:1-11 and Luke 4:1-13. The second and third temptations were switched in Luke Gospel from the sequence in Matthew’s Gospel. Hostile critics and readers pounce on the differences and conclude that the Gospel are unreliable. Are the critics right?

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Was Luke’s Report about a Worldwide Census Wrong?

Luke records that Caesar ordered a worldwide census, during the governorship of Quirinius, in Syria (Luke 2:1-2). Critics have spotted some chronological problems. Luke may have been wrong. Is the problem solvable with sound reason and historical digging?

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Differences in Gospel Parallels = Differences in OT Parallels

Hostile critics turn molehills into mountains. They apply unequal weights and measures to the Old Testament and the synoptic Gospels and John. That’s unfair. The Gospel writers were conforming to Old Testament precedence. Here’s the evidence.

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Reconciling Matthew’s and Luke’s Genealogies: Mission: Impossible?

Some scholars say they are irreconcilable, while others say reconciling them is not so difficult. I favor plausible harmonization. It’s all in the family. Bonus: see the American family “the Roosevelts” in a chart for parallels.

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1. New Testament Manuscripts: Preliminary Questions and Answers

This article is the first in a four-part series on New Testament textual criticism. It provides the basics on this science and art. It also answers the question, How do I grow closer to God?

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2. Basic Facts On Producing New Testament Manuscripts

This article comes second in a four-part series on New Testament textual criticism. It answers questions about the material and process of making the pages of a document, along with the scribal art of writing. It also answers the question: How does this post help me grow closer to God?

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3. Discovering and Classifying New Testament Manuscripts

This article provides basic facts on how some of the New Testament manuscripts were discovered and how they are classified. The post answers this important question: How does this post help me grow closer to God?

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4. The Manuscripts Tell The Story: The New Testament Is Reliable

This article, the last one in the four-part series, has a focused goal. It provides evidence from the best New Testament textual critics that it is possible to reach back to the original (autograph) books and letters of the New Testament, though the originals no longer physically exist. This post also answers the question: How do I grow closer to God?

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